EU data law overhaul 'cannot work'

Plans by the European Commission to overhaul EU data protection laws are too costly and will not work, MPs have warned.

The Commons Justice Committee said a complete rethink was needed by the commission of its proposals to strengthen data protection across the union.

It warned that national governments would not be prepared to fund the massive increase in regulatory resources that would be required to police the new system.

Member states should be given the "flexibility" to decide how they implemented the changes within their own borders, it said.

It called for a specific assurance that the measures would not affect the ability of police in the UK to use common law powers to pass on information in the interests of crime prevention and public protection.

"The UK Information Commissioner has asserted that the system set out in this regulation 'cannot work' and is 'a regime which no-one will pay for'," the committee said.

"We regard this as authoritative, and believe that the commission needs to go back to the drawing board and devise a regime which is much less prescriptive, particularly in the processes and procedures it specifies.

"Member states need to have the flexibility to implement the directive in ways which achieve its purposes through processes which are appropriate and proportionate in the national context."